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To start things off we’re going to resurrect the Soapy Smith Awards, once given by our delightful forerunner The Alaska Ear in the old days of the Anchorage Daily News. As the Ear would describe it, “Soapy Smith Award — a citation for dubious achievement, named in honor of Skagway’s Gold Rush con man and all-around scoundrel.”

Murkowski’s race isn’t the interesting part of the data. That distinction goes to the presidential race in Alaska. Those numbers show that Democrat Hillary Clinton has closed to within 3% points of Republican Donald Trump in the Last Frontier. That is inside the poll’s 4% margin of error.

According to Mark Begich, Alaska’s former junior senator will be making a significant announcement about his future at 8 A.M. Thursday morning on Rick Rydell’s radio show on AM 650 KENI. Rydell confirmed as much on Facebook this afternoon: